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Thursday, December 1, 2011

nooks & crannies

Yesterday Jax and I tooled around the yard, scooping up the rotten pumpkins and jack o' lanterns and piling them in the field. One benefit of waiting until after it gets cold out is that the puddles of pumpkin mush freezes into easy-to-pick-up patties. Pumpkinsicles if you will. So now we have only Christmas greenery and lights decorating Chez Green Girl.

Inside Chez Green Girl is another story. Team Testosterone woke up today wondering where the advent calendars were. I had one hanging and made promises to get in the basement today and dig out other holiday things. And now I feel compelled to collect the gourds and squashes and pumpkins inside the house, too. I like to strip (the shelves, not myself) and dust well before putting out Christmas things. Time to get ready, no more putting it off.

In other news, the Underwear Superheroes have been duking it out in our living room.

Yes, he's wearing underpants on his head. I wouldn't mess with him, either.

Mr. D is test driving a hybrid. I cannot get over how quiet it is.

Last night when we returned home from karate class/baseball clinic, a cat ran out of our garage. A tiger-striped cat with the cutest white paws. My heart leapt with hope and I realized at that moment how much I'd like another cat. Jax either wasn't aware of the cat or didn't mind it, because he just ran up to us, tongue out and happy. Mr. T and Mr. G chased around the corner of the house to try to find the cat, but it was dark and we couldn't call it back. I'm keeping my eyes open, though.

The library is still clean and tidy.

Look--bare corners!

Books in order, each where they belong according to Dewey's classification and alphabetical order.

You bet I'm a bit Type A.

The damn piano is still here. Mr. G brought home a Christmas song (The Christmas Beasts, Old French Melody) he's learning for his school concert. He asked me to teach him how to play the notes, so I wrote the letters on strips of masking tape and stuck them to the keys. Then I labeled the notes with the letters and Mr. G plays the piano in a tuneful way. Makes it tough to unload this albatross when someone's finally learning how to play it.

I love these chairs. My grandma bought them shortly before she died, so they were practically new when I got them. No one else wanted them, this house hadn't been built yet, but I took the chairs because it made me sad to think of them abandoned and they turned out perfect for this spot. The hutch in the background was also hers, she and grandpa bought it on their first anniversary. No one wanted that, either, and my father strong-armed me into taking it. I'm glad I did. This room is mostly full of the old things, the clock above the hutch belonged to Mr. D's mother, the Wedgwood to my other grandma, and, of course, Jan (the retired bowling ball) rests peacefully, keeping me company.

Just that one corner and my desk are messy. I'm not going to lie to you, the desk will never get cleaned up. But there it is, my library. My sacred space.

19 comments:

Nothing's really "tidy" in my house, at least to the extent of perfection that it could be, but most things are picked up. Younger son has a tendency to drop things on a flat surface and there they stay, invisible to him until I pick them up and drop them on his bed.

Wonderful about the piano (I know it is a bear but hopefully a bear that now makes lovely sounds). For easy home learning, I can really recommend the Bastien books for beginners. I've taught Caroline how to play using those books and she loves them.

I Love, Love, LOVE your library! When we had one of our earlier houses, someone had done a library corner in the basement family room and I loved it there. I've not had one since then. I alphabetize my books according to author. I'm anal, too.

The one thing in my life now that I have total control over is my underwear drawer. Don't laugh... It feels good to open my drawer and be able to reach in and pick up what I need without having to search and search.

I'd like for my craft room to be tidy and it will, just not in this year.

I have a lot of books on shelves, but no Dewey for me. I do have them roughly sorted by themes in some ways (all the classics are together and all the running books are together and all the horse books are together and all the psychology books are together and everything in between happily intermingles, lol)

Organizing books is always a problem for me. I have two big bookshelves, and I tend to organize by author and genre, but what do you do when some are hard cover and some are paperbacks, of the same author? They look wrong mixed in together, but it seems wrong to separate them too. So I go back and forth.

We have cleaned up the autumn decorations, and set up an Advent Calendar table. And I hung a wreath made of bells on the door we use the most often (the back door, of course). Before we can add more Christmas decorations, we need to do some cleaning. I'm all for stripping before decorating :-)

<3I have the same color walls in my front room (a.k.a. that one room nobody ever sits in, where the piano is, and which is usually very spiffy. I think most peoples' parents had one, growing up)

I think we talked about the piano a while back...don't ditch it, O please! it'll appreciate if you keep it in good shape, maybe pone of the kids will take an interest in the future...and once in a while you may have a guest who would be thrilled to play!

And....a cat!

I hope that little tiger decides he might be yours...if the timing's right..! a christmas cat!

My mom still has the piano both of my sisters and I played. Out of the 3 of us only one can actually still play well today and she's 3 hrs away. The grandkids love to bang on it when they come over, but other than that it don't really get played but she still has it.

I am decorating for the holidays too, but am not feeling it...Bird likes to drop everything she picks up so all my pretty, breakable stuff stayed in the basement. However, my piano is high enough I can put out pretty things, so that is all decked out. I think that's the only thing in my house right now that's tidy. :)

Love the Underwear Superheroes. I think Underpants Girl (an integral member of the Underpants Alliance) lives up here...we enjoy having underclothes on our heads.

Wow. I feel like I could have written this post. Except for the part with the cat. ;) I just went around outside and cleaned up all my pumpkins and scarecrows and fall decorations yesterday too. Then today I took down all the fall decorations in the house and dusted and cleaned everything and started to put up some Christmas stuff. Fun times. ;)

LOVE your library. I love the color. I want some deep lovely color like that in my library too. :)

If you've sat through a Pampered Chef party, this read's for you.

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The Reigning Queen of Team Testosterone lives on 60 acres of fields, prairie, woods and gardens. Her duties include: mothering/carting around her three bachelors, writing, PTA president, church volunteer, watering and planting, and housewivery ...not necessarily in that order.